2-year safety inspection sticker bill on its way to Gov. Jindal

By Ed Anderson and Jeff Adelson BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana residents will have the option of getting safety inspection stickers for their cars and trucks every two years or annually if Gov. Bobby Jindal signs a bill passed 37-0 Monday by the Senate. Senate Bill 601 by Sen. Sherri Smith Buffington, R-Shreveport, gives the vehicle owner the option of...

By Ed Anderson and Jeff Adelson

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana residents will have the option of getting safety inspection stickers for their cars and trucks every two years or annually if Gov. Bobby Jindal signs a bill passed 37-0 Monday by the Senate. Senate Bill 601 by Sen. Sherri Smith Buffington, R-Shreveport, gives the vehicle owner the option of paying $10 for a one-year inspection sticker or $20 for a two-year permit. Some parishes tack on local fees for the inspection.

Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune archiveResidents will have the option of getting a safety inspection sticker for their cars and trucks every two years or annually if Gov. Bobby Jindal signs a bill passed unanimously Monday by the Senate.

Buffington said that the House did no damage to her bill with a technical change in language and it was basically the same measure that cleared the Senate on April 9.

She said that drivers in federally designated areas of heavy air pollution will have to have their vehicles inspected annually.

The two-year stickers also cannot be obtained for commercial vehicles or by school buses and other "student transportation vehicles."

Jindal can sign the bill into law, veto it or let it become law on its own. If the bill becomes law, it will go into effect Sept. 1.

The Senate also gave 37-0 concurrence to minor changes made by the House to Senate Bill 135 that allows New Orleans to hold its elections in 2014 on a different schedule.

Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, sponsor of the measure, said the House re-worded the terms of when the bill will expire if it becomes law and asked the Senate to go along with the minor change. The bill now goes to Jindal.

Morrell's bill would shift the citywide election from the fourth Saturday after the first Saturday in February of 2014 to the third Saturday in March to avoid a conflict with the Carnival parade schedule.

Morrell said holding the elections at the same time as the parades will hurt turnout because many streets to polling places will be inaccessible much of the day.

The bill is automatically repealed June 1, 2014, after the elections have been conducted, Morrell said. The bill becomes law Aug. 1.

Senators also gave their final approval to Senate Bill 513 by Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, to prohibit the state from giving tax breaks to pornographic movies. To get around the tricky issue of determining how to define pornography, the bill prohibits films that have to register with the federal government to certify that children are not involved in the productions from getting state film tax credits.

The Senate also agreed with minor changes made to a pair of crime bills sponsored by Morrell.

The first, inspired by the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse allegations at Penn State, increases the number of professions that are mandated to report sexual abuse of a child and requires that anyone older than 18 who witnesses such abuse to contact the authorities.

Senate Bill 4 expands the ranks of so-called "mandatory reporters," adding that designation to bus drivers, coaches, teaching assistants and several other groups involved in the supervision of children. If someone who is a member of one of those groups knowingly fails to report the sexual abuse of a child, they can be fined $500, imprisoned for six months or both. If a mandatory reporter knowingly fails to report the abuse or neglect of a child that is injured or killed because of the abuse, the penalty increases to a fine of $3,000, three years in jail or both.

Any adult who personally witnesses the sexual abuse of a child and does not report it can be fined $10,000, imprisoned for up to five years or both.

Another Morrell measure, Senate Bill 59, makes it a crime to use a juvenile to distribute heroin, methamphetamine or cocaine. The bill prohibits allowing a juvenile to be in a vehicle or on a property where the distribution of those drugs is taking place.

Anyone found guilty of using a juvenile for drug trafficking would face a sentence of between 10 years and 30 years in prison, with at least 10 years of that served without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. The offender also would face of a fine of between $10,000 and $50,000.

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.co or 225.342.5810. Jeff Adelson can be reached at jadelson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5207.